“This site is dedicated to preying on people’s vanity, ignorance, or loneliness, gaining their trust and betraying them without remorse.”

Thursday, August 21, 2014

The expected $16.5 billion-plus settlement by Bank of America over financial crisis-era mortgage securities highlights a pattern of the government extorting the banks, said Dick Kovacevich, former Wells Fargo chairman and CEO

"It's definitely politics. It has nothing to do with justice or restitution to the innocent victims. In fact, more of the money is going to the coffers of the states and various departments than the victims," Kovacevich said Thursday on CNBC's "Squawk Box."

The BofA payout would be the largest in a series of soaring penalties against banks for a range of misconduct, including violating U.S. sanctions and inappropriately marketing mortgage securities. It is expected to be announced Thursday.

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U.S. jobless claims fall, continued claims at seven-year low

WASHINGTON Thu Aug 21, 2014 8:32am EDT

Aug 21 (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell more than expected last week, pointing to a sustained improvement in labor market conditions.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits declined 14,000 to a seasonally adjusted 298,000 for the week ended Aug. 16, the Labor Department said on Thursday.

Claims for the prior week were revised to show 1,000 more applications received than previously reported.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims slipping to 300,000 last week. A Labor Department analyst said there were no special factors influencing the state level data.

The four-week average of claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends as it irons out week-to-week volatility, rose 4,750 to 300,750. But at that level, it remains consistent with solid job growth and claims are back at their pre-recession levels.

The claims report covered the period during which the government surveyed employers for August's nonfarm payrolls data. The four-week average of claims fell 8,500 between the July and August survey periods, suggesting another month of relatively strong job gains.

The jobless claims report showed the number of people still receiving benefits after an initial week of aid fell 49,000 to 2.50 million in the week ended Aug. 9. That was the lowest level since June 2007.

The unemployment rate for people receiving jobless benefits was 1.9 percent for the sixth consecutive week.

The Israeli navy is a bit of an odd duck. It’s designed largely for coastal and eastern Mediterranean warfare. But among all of Israel’s small corvettes and missile boats are some some seriously mighty submarines.

Israel is also investing heavily in growing its submarine fleet. It’s a reflection of Tel Aviv’s increasing reliance on the underwater boats for a range of operations — including nuclear deterrence.

Right now, three Dolphin II-class submarines are under construction at Germany’s ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems shipyards in Kiel. Once the submarines complete their trials and head towards the Mediterranean, they will become the most powerful Israeli submarines ever.

More than 225 feet long, the diesel-electric Dolphin II class is part attack submarine, part nuclear strike ship and part commando taxi.

They’re also painted in an unusual combination of black, blue and green colors. That’s “meant to make the ship less visible, and thought to be especially effective in Mediterranean waters,” Defense News noted after recently publishing new photographs of the fat, oddly-shaped boats in dry dock and on sea trials.

In terms of weapons, the three boats of the Dolphin II class—the Tannin, Rahav and a third unnamed submarine—contain 10 torpedo tubes capable of launching fiber optic cable-guided DM-2A4 torpedoes. Germany has already handed over the Tannin, which is preparing for its journey to Israel.

Four of these tubes are larger 26-inch tubes—the size is rare for a Western-built submarine—capable of launching small commando teams or firing larger cruise missiles. The remaining six tubes measure at 21 inches.

Although not admitted by the Israeli government, the Dolphin II is widely believed to soon possess nuclear-tipped Popeye Turbo cruise missiles. The submarine’s armament includes non-nuclear anti-ship Harpoon and anti-helicopter Triton missiles.

In 2012, German news magazine Der Spiegel interviewed several German defense ministry officials, all of whom were under the assumption that Israel intends for these submarines to carry nuclear weapons. The missiles can also be launched “using a previously secret hydraulic ejection system,” the magazine reported.

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The photographs at Defense News also reveal horizontal planes for trailing communications gear and sonar buoys. But the classified propeller is covered by a tarp to keep out prying eyes.

For sensors, the Dolphin II comes with the German-made CSU-90 active radar, a PRS-3 passive ranging sonar and a FAS-3 flank sonar. These sensors are in addition to an Israeli-made surface search radar.

Of course, submarines need to be stealthy—and the Dolphin II is indeed quiet. The trick is in the submarine’s air-independent propulsion fuel cells, which provide power under the surface as the diesel engines—used for running on the surface—rest and recharge.

This system is quieter than the nuclear-powered engines on American and Russian submarines, which must constantly circulate engine coolant. Nuclear submarines are virtually unlimited in terms of range, and are better used for deep-water operations. But Israel has no need for nuclear-powered subs when quiet diesel subs can do the same job.

The Dolphin II’s top speed maxes out at 20 knots when submerged. But the maximum distance before needing to be refueled is around 9,200 miles at a speed of eight knots underwater. This puts the submarines in range of Iran.

And that’s why Israel is investing in an up-armed submarine fleet. The Israeli military wants to maintain its undeclared nuclear strike force. Given Israel’s small size, a nuclear deterrent promises massive retaliation if Israel’s homeland is threatened.

Plus, submarines are very useful for littoral operations off the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.

Israel has also boosted its submarines’ operational tempo. In 2013, Israeli submarines spent 58 percent of their time at sea compared to 36 percent from 2010 to 2012, according to the Times of Israel. This not only included secretive missions off Lebanon, but “deployments lasting several weeks that took the submarines thousands of kilometers from Israel,” the paper reported.

In July 2013, a series of mysterious explosions occurred at the Syrian port of Latakia. Though Israeli aircraft were likely responsible for the attack—which targeted a shipment of Russian Yakhont anti-ship missiles—such operations can be carried out by submarines.

Now the Israeli navy will soon have the much more capable way to do it.

From drones to AKs, high technology to low politics, exploring how and why we fight above, on and below an angry world.

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In the howlin' windComes a stingin' rainSee it drivin' nailsInto the souls on the tree of pain.

From the fireflyA red orange glowSee the face of fearRunnin' scared in the valley below.

Bullet the blue skyBullet the blue skyBullet the blueBullet the blue.

In the locust windComes a rattle and hum.Jacob wrestled the angelAnd the angel was overcome.

You plant a demon seedYou raise a flower of fire.We see them burnin' crossesSee the flames, higher and higher.

Woh, woh, bullet the blue skyBullet the blue skyBullet the blueBullet the blue.

Suit and tie comes up to meHis face red like a rose on a thorn bushLike all the colours of a royal flushAnd he's peelin' off those dollar bills(Slappin' 'em down)One hundred, two hundred.

And I can see those fighter planesAnd I can see those fighter planesAcross the tin huts as children sleepThrough the alleys of a quiet city street.Up the staircase to the first floorWe turn the key and slowly unlock the doorAs a man breathes into his saxophoneAnd through the walls you hear the city groan.Outside, is AmericaOutside, is AmericaAmerica.

See across the fieldSee the sky ripped openSee the rain comin' through the gapin' woundHowlin' the women and childrenWho run into the armsOf America.

What might account for the paradox? New data from a research firm offers a simple, frustrating answer: Middle-class American families’ income is lower now, when adjusted for inflation, than when the recovery began half a decade ago.

Sentier Research, a firm led by former census officials, used census data to tabulate an estimate of the median household income — how much is earned by families at the exact middle of the nation’s income distribution. In June 2014, it found in a report issued Wednesday, the median household income was $53,891, down from $55,589 in inflation-adjusted dollars when the economic expansion began in June 2009.

The economic paradox isn’t much of a paradox at all in this light: The purchasing power of the typical American family is 3.1 percent lower now than it was five years ago. No wonder people are unhappy about the economy! The benefits of rising levels of economic activity have simply not accrued to middle-income wage earners.

Sentier’s estimates of median household income, which are broadly consistent with the Census Bureau’s annual estimates, remain lower than they were in January 2000, when the data series began. The middle-income American family is worse off, in other words, than it was 14 years ago.

But there is some good news, too. If you look not at the entire five years of the current expansion, but only the last three, there has been improvement. June 2014 household incomes were up 3.8 percent in inflation-adjusted terms from June 2011.

Obama has nothing to do with it, the problems are not the President's.They are not part of his assigned duties.

Read the Constitution, Robert Peterson and you would know that the 'economy' is not part of the Executive branch of the Federal government. If it has become so, since the Founding, please quote the Chapter and Verse that makes the government responsible for the economy.

Read the Constitution, Robert Peterson and you would know that the 'economy' is not part of the Executive branch of the Federal government. If it has become so, since the Founding, please quote the Chapter and Verse that makes the government responsible for the economy.

The president sets priorities. The White House, by law, starts the budget process. They propose legislation. They can veto legislation including budgetary or economic reforms. They control the bureaucracies. They regulate. Congress may legislate but it is the federal bureaucracy under the presidency that writes the rules we all have to live by. While the initial Obamacare bill was 2200 pages long, we now have over 10,000 pages of Obamacare rules.

Every time the executive grants a waiver to some company it effects the economy.

The president has delayed major portions of Obamacare which, since healthcare represents about 17% of the economy, effects the economy. If the president, as he has promised, changes the status of a significant number of illegals, it will affect the economy. I personally think these actions are illegal just as the EPA trying to change the Clean Air Act was illegal; however, the Obamacare actions, for instance, have already been in place for most of a year and have affected the economy.

According to news reports, Henry Kissinger and sixteen American intelligence agencies agree that in the near future, "Israel" will no longer exist.

The New York Post quotes Kissinger word for word: "In 10 years, there will be no more Israel".

Kissinger's statement is flat and unqualified. He is not saying that "Israel" is in danger, but could be saved if just gave it additional trillions of dollars and smashed enough of its enemies with American military.

He is not saying that if bomb Iran, "Israel" might survive. He is not offering a way out. He is simply stating a fact: In 2022, "Israel" will no longer exist.

The US Intelligence Community agrees, though perhaps not on the precise 2022 expiration date.

Sixteen US intelligence agencies with a combined budget over USD70 billion have issued an 82-page analysis titled "Preparing for a Post-Israel Middle East".

The US intelligence report observes that the 700,000 "Israeli" settlers illegally squatting on land stolen in 1967 - land that the entire world agrees belongs to Palestine, not "Israel" - are not going to pack up and leave peacefully. Since the world will never accept their ongoing presence on stolen land, "Israel" is like South Africa in the late 1980s.

The extremist Likud coalition governing "Israel", according to the US intelligence report, is increasingly condoning and supporting rampant violence and lawlessness by illegal settlers.

The report states that the brutality and criminality of the settlers, and the growing apartheid-style infrastructure including the apartheid wall and the ever-more-draconian system of checkpoints, are indefensible, unsustainable, and out of synch with American values.

The sixteen US intelligence agencies agree that "Israel" cannot withstand the coming pro-Palestinian juggernaut consisting of the Arab Spring, the Islamic Awakening, and the rise of Iran.

In the past, dictatorships in the region kept a lid on the pro-Palestinian aspirations of their people. But those dictatorships began to topple with the fall of the pro-Israel Shah of Iran in 1979 and the establishment of a democratic Islamic Republic, whose government had little choice but to reflect its people's opposition to "Israel". The same process - the overthrow of dictators who worked with, or at least tolerated, "Israel" - is now accelerating throughout the region. The result will be governments that are more Islamic, and far less friendly to "Israel".

The US intelligence community report says that in light of these realities, the US government simply no longer has the military and financial resources to continue propping up "Israel" against the wishes of more than a billion of its neighbors.

In order to normalize relations with 57 Islamic countries, the report suggests, the US will have to follow its own national interests and pull the plug on "Israel".

Interestingly, neither Henry Kissinger nor the authors of the US Intelligence Report give any sign that they are going to mourn the demise of "Israel". This is remarkable, given that Kissinger is Jewish and has always been viewed as a friend (if occasionally a tough friend) of "Israel", and that all Americans, including those who work for intelligence agencies, have been influenced by the strongly pro-Israel media.

What explains such complacency?

Americans who pay attention to international affairs - a category that surely includes Kissinger and the authors of the Intelligence Report - are growing fed up with "Israeli" intransigence and fanaticism.

Netanyahu's bizarre, widely-ridiculed performance at the United Nations, where he brandished a cartoonish caricature of a bomb in such a way that he himself came across as a caricature of a "mad Zionist", was the latest in a series of gaffes by "Israeli" leaders who seem prone to overplaying their hand.

A second factor is the festering resentment many Americans feel over the "Israel" Lobby's imperious domination of public discourse. Every time a well-known American journalist is fired for going "off-script" about "Israel", as happened to Helen Thomas and Rick Sanchez, a mostly-invisible backlash, like a tidal wave rippling beneath the surface of the ocean, grows in power.

And every time the "Israel" lobby slaps down someone like Maureen Dowd, who recently observed that the same "Israel"-fanatics who dragged the US into the Iraq war are now trying to do the same thing with Iran, the more people begin to wake up and realize that people like Dowd, Thomas, and Sanchez are speaking the truth.

A third reason for complacency in the face of "Israel's" impending demise: The American Jewish community is no longer united in support of "Israel", much less its Likudnik leadership.

Sophisticated Jewish journalists and analysts like Philip Weiss are recognizing the insanity of "Israel's" current leadership and the hopelessness of its predicament.

According to recent reports, it is no longer fashionable among young American Jews to care about "Israel".

And despite Netanyahu's frantic attempts to sway Jewish voters toward the Mormon Likudnik Mitt Romney, polls show that Obama, who is on record saying he "hates" the "liar" Netanyahu, will easily win the majority of Jewish votes.

"Israel" has reached the end of its shelf-life. More and more American politicians and representatives oft the US elite, as well as ordinary Americans, share this opinion.

There has been an unprecedented moral inversion, illustrating the power of a noxious idea to seep from the ideological fringe to the mainstream.

The United States is not yet down to one pro-Israel party. But the seepage among Democrats continues. At the 2012 Democratic convention, a fight erupted over the deletion from the party’s platform of standard language acknowledging Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. It took an order from the White House to restore the pro-Israel clause, and even then it had to be gaveled through over the vocal opposition of half the convention delegates.

Not long ago, such a hostile gesture would have been unthinkable. Now, with each new poll confirming Democratic chilliness toward the Jewish state Democrats once loved, can it be anything but a precursor of worse to come?

Still clearing out my in box, but I'm at least able to devote a full entry to each story this morning. This one is from more than a week ago but still very noteworthy:

One of the nation’s largest hospital operators,Tenet Healthcare THC -0.12% (THC), last week opened a window into the differences for patients and hospital financial coffers between those states with Medicaid dollars and those without.

“In our five states that expanded Medicaid in 2014, we benefited from a significant migration of patients from uninsured into Medicaid with a 54% decline in uninsured admissions and a 27% decline in uninsured outpatient visits,” Tenet chief executive Trevor Fetter said during the company’s second-quarter earnings call last week.

In case you think this is just "cherry-picking" from a single hospital corporation, here's a similar story from back in May (when Medicaid expansion enrollment was significantly lower):

The Hospital Corporation of America, which has facilities in 20 states, reported a big gap in Medicaid and uninsured admissions between expansion and non-expansion states. In the four states it operates where Medicaid expanded under the ACA, the company saw a 22.3 percent growth in Medicaid admissions, compared to a 1.3 percent decline in non-expansion states. The company also had a 29 percent decline in uninsured admissions in the expansion states, while non-expansion states experienced 5.9 percent growth in uninsured admissions, chief . . . . . . .

But wait… MY BAD, only JEWS are not allowed to connect to historic connections to the land….

Nonsense, once again you use the straw man fallacy. Jews can bathe in their historic connections all want. Enjoy.

The actual argument is that historic connections from a couple thousand years ago don't automatically grant any 'rights' with regard to possessing the land today just as having the Big Guy promise the land to Jews doesn't grant them any legal right to it then or now.

An increasingly vocal minority of Federal Reserve officials want the central bank to retreat more quickly from its stimulus campaign, arguing that the bank has largely exhausted its ability to improve economic conditions.

Is this really true? Of course, they are being very vocal — but when didn’t they call for monetary tightening?

The article highlights Charles Plosser of the Philadephia Fed; if you’ve been following these things, you know that Plosser has been warning about imminent inflation since the beginning of the crisis. He did it in 2008; he did it in 2009; he did it in 2010; he did it in 2011; I’m getting tired here, but you can easily find him doing the same in 2012 and 2013. And he has of course been wrong all the way — but he’s doing it again. This is news?

The real story here is the remarkable resilience of inflation panic: people who worry about inflation never seem daunted in the least by the repeated failure of their predictions. It’s an interesting question . . . . . .

Matt O'Brien points out that Europe really is doing worse than it did in the Great Depression. Meanwhile, Francois Hollande — whose spinelessness and willingness to buy into austerity doomed his presidency and quite possibly the European project — is finally, tentatively, suggesting that maybe further austerity isn’t the answer.

Simon Wren-Lewis thinks that the European embrace of austerity was a historical contingency; basically, the Greek crisis strengthened the hand of the austerians at a critical moment. I don’t think it’s that easy to explain; my sense was that there was powerful anti-Keynesian sentiment in Europe even before the Greek crisis, that macroeconomics as Anglo-Saxon economists understand it never had a real constituency in Europe’s corridors of power.

Whatever the explanation, we are now, as O’Brien says, looking at one of the great catastrophes of economic history.

"According to recent reports, it is no longer fashionable among young American Jews to care about "Israel".

You see, that was almost correct about 8 weeks ago… But then? A funny thing happened on the way to delegitimizing Israel. The BDS, the Israel is a colonial occupier, the IDf are pussies crowd went too far with their "we don't hate Jews, just Israel" nonsense…

The "death to the Jews" "Hitler was right", murder of a Rabbi on FL 2 weeks ago just days after the schul was vandalized, the attacks on Jewish students across the nation at colleges FOR BEING JEWISH, all ignored by the main street media, has sent a wake up, clarion call thru-out the Jewish community in the WORLD.

Jews from the Ukraine, France, Sweden, the USA, Argentina and more are fleeing to Israel for safety. And the Jews that remain? ARE ARMING UP and seeing the truth for the 1st time in decades.

It aint about Israel. It's pure and simple jew hatred.

anti-zionism is anti-semitism.

Laws and boycotts in Poland, Sweden and England banning Kosher foods is about Jew hatred and appeasement of the islamic savages that now dominate their local politics.

Yep, Thanks Rufus, Rat and Deuce… You have contributed to the INCREASED PRO-Israel sentiment amongst those in the jewish community that were becoming "progressives", thanks you are helping turn the tide…

Every country in the Americas freed the black slaves . Only one politician in one country did it while killing 700,000 and so militarized the population and radicalized it with racial and religious bigotry that the. US went on to slaughter the American Indian tribes in the west. Lincoln had the single largest mass execution in US history. He had his generals go through the southern states that would outshine the Israelis on Gaza

And despite all this I wonder if I am too sanguine. Last month, pro-Gaza protesters on Kurfürstendamm, the legendary avenue in Berlin, chanted, “Jews, Jews, cowardly swine.” Demonstrators in Dortmund and Frankfurt chanted, “Hamas, Hamas; Jews to the gas!” And a pro-Hamas marcher in Berlin broke away from the crowd and assaulted an older man who was quietly standing on a corner holding an Israeli flag.

On the eve of Bastille Day, a group of Parisian Jews were trapped in a synagogue by pro-Palestinian rioters and had to be rescued by the police. A few weeks ago signs were posted in Rome urging a boycott of 50 Jewish-owned businesses. In central London last week, anti-Israel protesters targeted a Sainsbury’s grocery, and the manager reflexively pulled kosher products off the shelves. (The supermarket chain later apologized.)

It would be simple to link all this outrage to events in Gaza. But this trend has been evident for a while. In March 2012, four people were killed at a Jewish day school in Toulouse, France. (Last month, a Jewish community center there was firebombed.) In December 2012, Israeli officials warned Jewish men who wanted to visit synagogues in Denmark not to don their skullcaps until they were inside the building. It is increasingly common for Jewish tourists in Western Europe to avoid carrying anything that might distinguish them as such. A shooting at the Jewish Museum in Brussels in May, a month before the latest Gaza conflict began, killed four people.

I am unpersuaded by those who try to dismiss what is happening as “just rhetoric.” It is language, after all, that’s at the heart of the ubiquitous slippage from anger at Israeli military action to hatred of Jews.

Nor am I comforted by the explanation that these actions are being taken by “disgruntled Muslim youth.” (By one estimate, 95 percent of anti-Semitic actions in France are committed by youths of Arab or African descent.) Many of these Muslims were born in Europe, and many of those who weren’t are the parents of a new generation of Europeans.

The Hamas charter is an example. It contains references to “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” a notorious forgery created by Russian czarist police officers in 1903 and later used as Nazi propaganda. The charter accuses Jews of relying on secret societies to foment global economic and political disasters. It calls on adherents to prepare for “the next round with the Jews, the merchants of war.”

Yet when a Hamas spokesman recently stood by his statement that Jews used the blood of non-Jewish children for their matzos — one of the oldest anti-Semitic canards around — European elites were largely silent.

Seventy years after the Holocaust, many Jews in Europe no longer feel safe. Hiring an armed guard to protect people coming for weekly prayer is not the action of a secure people. In too many cities worldwide, directions to the local synagogue conclude with, “You will recognize it by the police car in front of the building.”

An elderly Jewish couple are sitting together on an airplane flying to the Far East. Over the public address system, the Captain announces: "Ladies and Gentlemen, I am afraid I have some very bad news. Our engines have ceased functioning, and this plane will be going down momentarily. Luckily, I see an island below us that should be able to accommodate our landing. Unluckily, this Island appears to be uncharted; I am unable to find it on our maps. So the odds are that we will never be rescued and will have to live on the island for a very long time, if not for the rest of our lives." The husband turns to his wife and asks, "Esther, did we turn off the stove?" and Esther replies, "of course." "Esther, are our life insurance policies paid up?" "Of course." "Esther, did we pay our UJA pledge?" "Oh my G-d, I forgot to send the check!!" "Thank Heaven! They'll find us for sure!!"

The first Jewish President is elected. He calls his Mother: "Mama, I've won the elections, you've got to come to the swearing-in ceremony." "I don't know, what would I wear?" "Don't worry, I'll send you a dressmaker" "But I only eat kosher food" "Mama, I am going to be the president, I can get you kosher food" "But how will I get there?" "I'll send a limo,just come mama" "Ok Ok, if it makes you happy. The great day comes and Mama is seated between the Supreme Court Justices and the Future Cabinet members, she nudges the gentleman on her right. "You see that boy, the one with his hand on the Bible" "His brother's a doctor!"

Long before there was a Jewish state, the Muslim Brotherhood swore to exterminate the world's Jews. Israel gives the closet queens the cover they need to come out in drag and say naughty things in public.

It is one thing to show up at a synagogue by the score in Paris to terrorize some elderly Jewish men and young boys on erev shabbat. It is quite another to face off against the IDF. Hundreds of brave, noble, Arab knights have been known to surrender to news crews. Talking about terrorist bravery, in 1970 Jordan whipped Arafat's ass like he was a toy drum. I'm not being judgmental, "Yes Sir" loved having his ass pummeled -- usually by blond Nordic stud muffins. He and his boys just couldn't fight like men, say, like the Kurd Saladin.

"Saladin died of a fever on 4 March 1193, at Damascus, not long after Richard's departure. In Saladin’s possession at the time of his death were one piece of gold and forty pieces of silver. He had given away his great wealth to his poor subjects, leaving nothing to pay for his funeral. He was buried in a mausoleum in the garden outside the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, Syria. Seven centuries later, Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany donated a new marble sarcophagus to the mausoleum."

Dems fret that ISIS will force America to return to Iraqposted at 12:41 pm on August 21, 2014 by Noah Rothman

The announcement by American officials that a raid into Syria aimed at liberating Americans in ISIS custody, including one who was later beheaded on camera by Islamic State terrorists, failed to achieve its objectives is dispiriting. While the American air campaign over Iraq appears to be successfully rolling back ISIS in Iraq, the U.S. lacks a comprehensive strategy to deal with the group in Iraq’s Sunni regions or in their Syrian stronghold. Moreover, some Democrats are now openly fretting that the latest escalation of tensions between ISIS and America will goad the U.S. into a new ground war in Iraq.

On Fox News Channel’s Special Report on Wednesday, The Washington Post opinion columnist Charles Lane spelled out the fears of some about what a true commitment to defeating the Islamic State would mean.

“What are we prepared to do once the airstrikes start yielding diminishing returns, as they inevitably will?” he asked. “It seems like the plan is to arm and support Kurds and the renovated Iraqi army on the ground, but, you know, that – it is a big ‘if’ that those guys have the muscle to really destroy this Islamic state.”.....

At a minimum, defend Kurdistan? WiO and allen have convinced me the Kurds are a different sort of moslem, a type I didn't know existed. They have taken in Christian refugees. The women seem free, integrated into their armed forces, like the women in Israel, like the women in the USA. There seems to be some deep connection between the Kurds and Jews that I don't fathom. A moslem state that takes in Christian refugees and is friendly to Israel, treats the women well...who can object to that?

I don’t know if something is medically or psychologically wrong with President Obama; whether it’s simply stress or if, God forbid, he has some sort of addiction that is causing him to look like an aging skeleton. But for some reason this supposedly “charismatic” leader and “great orator” keeps crawling out from his party down private life to address the American people with an apathetic monotone voice and lackadaisical gaze. He consistently avoids direct eye contact with the camera in the same way a guilty child avoids his parent’s glare.

Rogers said there are "thousands of Westerners and Americans in both the eastern Syria and Iraq who have Western passports" fighting with extremists. The highest estimates put the figure between 2,000 and 3,000, which would make it technically accurate, but somewhat exaggerated, to say "thousands." A March estimate from the U.S. government said there were about 1,000 Westerners in Syria. Only a few dozen of them are from the United States, though, and you might not get that impression from Rogers’ comment.

So Rogers may have amplified the numbers a bit, but he did not overstate the threat. Experts we spoke with, along with U.S. and Western governments, have expressed legitimate concerns about this issue. Therefore, we rate Rogers’ statement Mostly True.

The group has not been linked to any known plot against the United States, but Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper Jr. testified in January that the group “does have aspirations for attacks on the homeland.”

U.S. officials have said about 100 Americans have either traveled to Syria or tried to. Among them was a former Florida resident, Moner Mohammad Abusalha, who returned undetected to the United States for several months this year before departing again for Syria and detonating a suicide bomb. Abusalha was not tied to the Islamic State, but officials believe that as many as a dozen Americans have linked up with the group.

I have yet to see any article that specifically talks of more than 100 Americans joining the Islamists in Syria and Iraq and the number that has joined IS is a small subset of the total. US government sources usually quote a smaller number.

The "oranges" have been replaced by Dell, Microsoft, Apple, Warren Buffet, Intel and numerous others who wish to use Israeli innovation and invention… That's why they call Israel the "start up nation". BTW they call the Palestinians? "Blow up nation" - LOL

It is a sticky wicket but we have no choice in this one, but make no mistake, this is a direct result of the Neocon scheme to destabalize the Middle East. It worked in spades, but since the Neocons have no army, it will fall on the usual suspects and we will have to get it done with Arab and Persian allies.

By the way asshole, rather than a little nookie from niecey for money, she has given me the job of interviewing the man she has been seeing, and passing a judgement of fitness on him. This is a traditional task of the favorite uncle in her society, and, though she has other uncles, she likes and trusts me best. :) Since he has a PhD in Science and works in Poland but goes all over Europe, and was from her own high school in India - a surprise to them both ! - I am already tending to be kindly disposed to the Gentleman.

Your brain dead mind always goes to the lowest common denominator, does it not, BudBrain?

Speaking of decreasing IQ's, a study run by the University of Idaho (Go Vandals!) found that mean IQ's had dropped precipitously in the state; however, when certain subsets where pulled from the data, most prominently English majors of Swedish heritage, the overall scores normalized.

So far so good. However, when you look in the body of the article you see this

Most importantly, ISIS today represents a direct and growing threat to the United States. It has attracted an estimated 12,000 foreign fighters to its black banner flying over Syrian and Iraqi territory, including hundreds of Europeans and Americans who can travel freely with Western passports.

Are we becoming more STUPID? IQ scores are decreasing - and some experts argue it's because humans have reached their intellectual peak

IQs have largely increased since the 1930s thanks to better living conditions and education - a trend known as the Flynn effect But IQ test results suggest people in the UK, Denmark and Australia have become less intelligent in the past decade Opinion is divided as to whether the downwards trend is long-term Some studies have shown the average IQ of Westerners has plunged 10 points or more since Victorian times and others claim it will keep decreasing But other experts argue that even if we are becoming more stupid, better healthcare and technology means the 'problem' will regulate itself

Members of the Army's elite Delta Force and Navy's Seal Team SIx conducted a July 4 holiday weekend raid on an Islamic State stronghold in Syria, where U.S intelligence officials believed Foley and other hostages were being held. But there were no signs of any hostages.

ABC News reported that the rescue effort involved at least 24 special forces members, supported by helicopters and an Air Force AC-130 gunship.They engaged with more than 100 militants in an Islamic State stronghold near Raqqah.

More than a dozen militants were killed. One member of the raiding party was wounded, ABC reported.

Finally starting to warm up. 68' in sunny Adelaide today. Been a cold and wet winter. Shitload of rain. Dusting of snow in the Adelaide Hills which is pretty rare. Record snowfall in the mountains in New South Wales and Victoria. Most snow in 38 years. Bring on spring. I am ready.

Australia's policy of throwing illegal imiigrants (especially children) in detention centers is the big news at the moment down here.

Magnificent Ronald and the Founding Fathers of al Qaeda

“These gentlemen are the moral equivalents of America’s founding fathers.” — Ronald Reagan while introducing the Mujahideen leaders to media on the White house lawns (1985). During Reagan’s 8 years in power, the CIA secretly sent billions of dollars of military aid to the mujahedeen in Afghanistan in a US-supported jihad against the Soviet Union. We repeated the insanity with ISIS against Syria.